Video: 'Alan Freed apologized for The Moondog Coronation Ball riot 65 years ago.'

(Friday, March 21, 1952, 10:00 p.m. EST) — Alan Freed, a disc jockey who popularized the term “Rock and Roll” at WJW-Radio in Cleveland, Ohio, organized what is generally accepted as the first major rock and roll concert — the Moondog Coronation Ball — tonight at the Cleveland Arena.

The concert featured Paul Williams and the Hucklebuckers, and Tiny Grimes and the Rocking Highlanders (an African American instrumental group that appeared in kilts). Also on the bill were the Dominoes, Varetta Dillard, and Danny Cobb.

More tickets were printed than the arena’s actual capacity, in part due to counterfeiting and a printing error. With an estimated 20,000 individuals trying to crowd into an arena that held slightly more than half that — and worries that a riot might break out as people tried to crowd in — the fire authorities shut down the concert after the first song by opening act Paul “Hucklebuck” Williams ended.

Freed made a public apology on WJW the next day.